Thank You For Smoking, by Christopher Buckley, is the book I chose mainly because it was funny. Secondly, it flies in the face of the government telling us what to do. Finally, I chose this book, or maybe I should say, kept reading it, because of its main character Nick. Nick is a very interesting guy whose life is kind of screwed up because of what/who he works for; he is also very cunning and smooth.
Genre Talks Thank You For Smoking fits fictional satire, because for one it is fiction and then there are many other reasons for it being considered satire. Satire, the use of irony ridicule or exaggeration, rears its head many times throughout this book by exposing the main character’s personality, dislikes, and romantic views. The book reveals Nick using irony at many points throughout the book to expose the feebleness of certain people’s views against smoking, which is what he works to defend. An example of this is found in chapter 5 when Nick is on the TV show Oprah. In this instance the book exposes an incredible act of irony, when Nick makes a kid, who’s dying of cancer caused by cigarettes, laugh at his joke against some of the anti-smoking organizations. This proves the genre of satire by using irony in this instance. Yet another example of satire is found in in chapter 15, where Nick’s sexual turn on’s are exploited, yet reflect his stressful condition more than anything else. A final example of irony is found in chapter 11 where Nick gets kidnapped. The irony here is that this is the one time that his coffee lid does not come off in the only situation where he would want it come off, dumping the angry contents onto his kidnapper’s vulnerable lap. For its use of irony and exploitation, this book is best described as fictional satire.
Summary of Plot Thank You For Smoking
Thank you for smoking follows a character named Nick Naylor. The book starts out with Nick explaining his place of work, The Academy of Tobacco Studies. The story really starts to get going when Nick attends the 2000 Clean Lungs convention. As normally happens, after this appearance, he was bombarded by newspapers asking him for comments on the event. At this point, the reader discovers that Nick not like the character BR, and prefers the boss whom he replaced, JJ Hollister. In the next chapter the book introduces the MOD Squad - a group of Nick’s friends they together refer to themselves as “The Merchants of Death”. The Merchants of Death are comprised of Bobby Jay Bliss, a spokesperson for a gun rights group, Nick and Polly Bailey, a spokesperson for the Moderation counsel. They are all in fact chief spokespersons for their respective fields. The book goes on to talk about each of their backgrounds, providing interesting information about their respective past.
Next the book goes on to discuss Nick’s son Joey. Joey plays a small role in the book as it only describes his school, St. Euthanasius. The name of Joey’s school offers up a bit of irony as it has “euthanize” within the name of the school. This is ironical because Joey’s dad works for a cause that, well, kills people hence the word “euthanize”. In the next chapter Nick meets with BR for his Monday meeting; on this occasion, BR is humorless towards Nick. During the meeting Nick presents the idea of bringing sex appeal back into smoking by putting cigarettes back in the movies. He notes the boom in cigarette sales when they were first featured by those movie stars. In the next chapter, Nick goes on Oprah’s show. During the show Nick is put in an awkward position. He has to discuss cigarettes with heads of organizations such as “Mothers Against Smoking” and OSAP; to add to the tension, Nick has to sit next to a kid dying of cancer. Nick proceeds to make a joke that the cancer kid laughs at, bringing an element of satire and Irony back into the book again. Nick also goes on to drive asupporter of OSAP into a full on rage - physically attacking Nick. Also, before the show ends, Nick notes that the Academy of Tobacco Studies will be launching a $5,000,000 campaign against teenage smoking. After the show Nick meets with the legend and also the Chief, Doak Boykin, about his performance. Whilst BR is mad at Nick for committing so much money on the spot, the Chief is very happy. Nick and the Captain talk over BR’s plan, stolen from Nick, to reintroduce smoking back into the movies. When Nick gets back he notices that the Captain has doubled his salary. In the next chapter Nick goes on the Larry king show. On that show Nick gets a death threat from a caller into the show. As a result, upon arriving home, Nick is immediately assigned a security team to make sure he stays safe. Within the pages of the next chapter, Nick loses his security team and as soon as he is alone, he is kidnapped. In the final chapter, Nick is accused of staging his own kidnapping as a ruse to gain pity on the tobacco industry. Also, smoking as it turns out saves his life. A big plot twist finishes off the book. Thank You For Smoking uses several elements of satire and irony, as well as a plot twist at the end, to draw the reader in; it uses these techniques impeccably.
Characters
The first character I will talk about is Bobby Jay Bliss; he is a member the MOD Squad, a group of friends with whom Nick eats dinner. Bobby works for SAFETY (the Society for the Advancement of Firearms and Effective Training of Youth). This is an organization promoting the right to bear arms. “Bobby Jay is a soft-speaking, curly-headed 220-pounder from Loober, Mississippi, population 235, where his father had been sheriff, mayor, and the principal collector of tax revenue by virtue of arresting every third driver who went through Loober, regardless of how fast he was going”. This quote on page 18 reveals everything about Bobby Jay, and a little bit about his neurotic father. After the Kent State shootings, Bobby Jay signed up for the National Guard, hoping to shoot college students, but instead having to settle for Vietnamese targets. He liked it, but the Vietnamese also shot back and that wasn’t so appealing. The writer says it this way on page 19, “So Bobby Jay ended up shooting at Vietnamese, which was almost as good as college students except they shot back.” The book also notes that he got his current job when the head of Safety heard his story upon him arriving home. His two tours ended in Southeast Asia when a rotor blade cut off part of his left arm up to his elbow. The book notes that Bobby Jay is a natural spokesperson for the cause of gun ownership in America, with his colorful Southerner’s way. In conclusion, Bobby Jay is a natural spokesperson born and raised in a small town, and he also has his colorful past full of arms and Vietnamese.
The next character I will talk about is Polly Bailey, who is the Chief spokesperson for the “Moderation Council”. Polly has a sexy raspy voice acquired from years of smoking; the book also notes that she wears her hair down to show youthfulness, rather than the dull boring manly woman executives you usually see. This quote on page 20 notes the sexiness in her voice caused by smoking, “Polly smoked – chain smoked in fact – which gave her voice a nice husky rasp, so that her flawless equivocations on the subject of blood alcohol content, phenolics, and excise taxes sounded downright sexy, as if she were sharing them with you in bed, with the sheets rumpled, jazz on the stereo, the candle flickering, smoke curling toward the ceiling.” She is also a stylish dresser, and doesn’t reflect the normal stereotype of the Wall Street woman. Polly is from southern California and she went to Georgetown. She wanted to enter the Foreign Service but flunked the exam. She worked on Capitol Hill for a while, and eventually ended up where she is now. While in her twenties she married a smart attractive young man named Hector, he seemed to be destined for presidential office, but he instead got sucked into a non-profit organization that gave free condoms to third world countries. With his obsession came one day his desire to have lots of children, and when Polly refused, he declared their relationship finished and moved to Lagos, Nigeria. In conclusion, Polly Bailey is a sexy young asset to the Moderation Council and the whole alcohol industry, and with her bouts with a hopeful turn to be hill rat looser she probably isn’t looking for a relationship anytime soon. She is one of the three friends In the MOD Squad.
My Final character is Nick. Nick is the chief spokesperson for The Academy of Tobacco studies, and he also has a son by the name Joey who goes to a school called St. Euthanasius. Nick is a very clever spokesperson, and is very good at what he does. He is also very clever and takes risks all on his own at the drop of a hat. This is best shown when on Oprah‘s show, he promised five million dollars instead of the planned five hundred thousand dollars for a campaign against teenage smoking. He often makes these decisions at others’ expense; for instance BR’s reaction to this event was “five million dollars? Where in the name of God are we supposed to get five million for anti- smoking ads?” As one can clearly see, his decision was at BR’s expense as BR was hoping he would still have his butt by the end of the day when the Captain found out. Of course his decision paid off for the better, as did all of his decisions in the book, because the Captain was so delighted in fact, he flew Nick down to see him. His delight is best shown through this quote on page 52, “Ah just wanted to personally say thank you.” Nick’s wit and cunningness is probably his most evident trait in the book.
Big Ideas
The big idea of this book is most definitely either society’s growing view of the cigarette companies or Nicks struggle with the moral aspects covered in the book. Nick’s struggle with morals is best seen when he talks to Lorne Lutch, because through this exchange he confides in Lorne that he does it only because he is good, and that he likes the challenge. This reveals that Nick isn’t particularly looking out for the future of cigarettes as much as just enjoying the challenge of saving them. Nick’s excuse is always just paying the mortgage, because it is simple and everybody can agree. Throughout the book, everybody’s excuse is always the benefit that working for the company brings them. The other big idea is the society’s growing view on cigarettes fueled by so much propaganda like the kidnapper that rises to kill spokespersons just because of their affiliation with cigarettes. When talking to senator Finnestere about his Vermont cheese and how it’s the number one killer in America (which is really cholesterol), Nick points out the unobvious which really shocks the senator; the fact is we don’t see ads on TV about going cold turkey on cheese, but yet we do see it on cigarettes - this is one of the main defenses, and also big ideas that Nick uses throughout the book to protect the cigarette companies.
Major conflict
The major conflict within the book is most definitely society’s view on what Nick is working to protect, cigarettes. Within the book there are several examples of this, the first one being on Opera’s show. On this show, Nick is directly blamed for the future death of a cancer kid patient he is sitting next to; this example enforces that point because Opera’s show is supposedly a big symbol or reflection of society’s view. Another example of the major conflict is Senator Finnestere’s viewpoint and his idea on how to combat cigarettes. Because he is an influential leader in his state and he also represents his thoughts as well as many others when he speaks, Finnestere speaks for the greater whole of his state. The final example is when Nick gets kidnapped, because this greatly shows what probably a lot of people are thinking, the kidnapper put crimes against humanity on the back of his neck, which symbolizes what a lot of people think, even though he’s a psychopath. A crime against humanity is what a lot of people are thinking, including Finnestere and the people who were there to see Nick on Opera show. This is a conflict Nick has to deal with every day of his life in the book, and is also really the point of his job.
My Image; Reese's
Reese's fits the, it will kill you, aspect of the book, because it, if eaten too much, can lead to several diseases.
The symbolism to this Reese's is much like senator Finnestere's cheese in the book, although there is no propaganda supporting it both of these substances can kill much like cigarettes. While cheese can lead to cholesterol Reese's can lead to being over weight and with weight can come both diabetes and breast cancer, Reese's is a very tasty killer that has not been spoken for much like the cheese in the book. The problem is too much of anything can kill, and that's the problem with all three substances here. Reese's, if it were in the book, would stand for another unspoken for killer that Nick could use against the media.
Five New or unusual words I found
1. Oeuvre – Nick countering with Doris Day and Cary Grant movies from the fifties, Joey sticking his finger down his throat to indicate where he stood on the Grant- Day oeuvre. Oeuvre- Works of a painter or musician.
2. Ventured- The Important thing is, he ventured consolingly. Ventured- risky trip
3. Consolingly (in this context) - The Important thing is, he ventured consolingly. Consolingly – told in a comforting way.
4. Glowered – They glowered up at him. Glowered- angry look on someone’s face.
5. Oratory – A direct steal from the Jesse Jackson School of Meaningless but rhymed oratory. Oratory- Formal type speaking in public
Existing works Thank You For Smoking is a piece of literature, and also a film, and the film has a couple of main differences and a couple of key points that remind me of the book. The First main difference I noticed is the role Nick’s son plays in the movie. In the book, Nick mentions him once or twice talking about his school and such, but in the movie Nick has long drawn out drama featuring his ex -wife and her boyfriend. In the book Joey is nearly just an object who has to do with an ironic situation, his school, because of the word euthanize within it; however in the movie, Joey is a sense of both responsibility and love for Nick as Nick tries to teach his son about life and his job. Another main difference, and the final one I found, is that in the movie BR is not the one that plans Nick’s kidnapping. Also Nick, in the movie is asked back to the company whilst in the book he isn't In the book, BR’s plan goes bad when the FBI is on his tail about to find out what he did, intentionally kidnapping Nick, which would most likely be considered conspiracy. This is one of the main differences between the book and the movie; I find it a disappointment because it would have made the book more exciting.
Genre Talks
Thank You For Smoking fits fictional satire, because for one it is fiction and then there are many other reasons for it being considered satire. Satire, the use of irony ridicule or exaggeration, rears its head many times throughout this book by exposing the main character’s personality, dislikes, and romantic views. The book reveals Nick using irony at many points throughout the book to expose the feebleness of certain people’s views against smoking, which is what he works to defend. An example of this is found in chapter 5 when Nick is on the TV show Oprah. In this instance the book exposes an incredible act of irony, when Nick makes a kid, who’s dying of cancer caused by cigarettes, laugh at his joke against some of the anti-smoking organizations. This proves the genre of satire by using irony in this instance. Yet another example of satire is found in in chapter 15, where Nick’s sexual turn on’s are exploited, yet reflect his stressful condition more than anything else. A final example of irony is found in chapter 11 where Nick gets kidnapped. The irony here is that this is the one time that his coffee lid does not come off in the only situation where he would want it come off, dumping the angry contents onto his kidnapper’s vulnerable lap. For its use of irony and exploitation, this book is best described as fictional satire.
Summary of Plot
Thank You For Smoking
Thank you for smoking follows a character named Nick Naylor. The book starts out with Nick explaining his place of work, The Academy of Tobacco Studies. The story really starts to get going when Nick attends the 2000 Clean Lungs convention. As normally happens, after this appearance, he was bombarded by newspapers asking him for comments on the event. At this point, the reader discovers that Nick not like the character BR, and prefers the boss whom he replaced, JJ Hollister. In the next chapter the book introduces the MOD Squad - a group of Nick’s friends they together refer to themselves as “The Merchants of Death”. The Merchants of Death are comprised of Bobby Jay Bliss, a spokesperson for a gun rights group, Nick and Polly Bailey, a spokesperson for the Moderation counsel. They are all in fact chief spokespersons for their respective fields. The book goes on to talk about each of their backgrounds, providing interesting information about their respective past.
Next the book goes on to discuss Nick’s son Joey. Joey plays a small role in the book as it only describes his school, St. Euthanasius. The name of Joey’s school offers up a bit of irony as it has “euthanize” within the name of the school. This is ironical because Joey’s dad works for a cause that, well, kills people hence the word “euthanize”. In the next chapter Nick meets with BR for his Monday meeting; on this occasion, BR is humorless towards Nick. During the meeting Nick presents the idea of bringing sex appeal back into smoking by putting cigarettes back in the movies. He notes the boom in cigarette sales when they were first featured by those movie stars. In the next chapter, Nick goes on Oprah’s show. During the show Nick is put in an awkward position. He has to discuss cigarettes with heads of organizations such as “Mothers Against Smoking” and OSAP; to add to the tension, Nick has to sit next to a kid dying of cancer. Nick proceeds to make a joke that the cancer kid laughs at, bringing an element of satire and Irony back into the book again. Nick also goes on to drive asupporter of OSAP into a full on rage - physically attacking Nick. Also, before the show ends, Nick notes that the Academy of Tobacco Studies will be launching a $5,000,000 campaign against teenage smoking. After the show Nick meets with the legend and also the Chief, Doak Boykin, about his performance. Whilst BR is mad at Nick for committing so much money on the spot, the Chief is very happy. Nick and the Captain talk over BR’s plan, stolen from Nick, to reintroduce smoking back into the movies. When Nick gets back he notices that the Captain has doubled his salary. In the next chapter Nick goes on the Larry king show. On that show Nick gets a death threat from a caller into the show. As a result, upon arriving home, Nick is immediately assigned a security team to make sure he stays safe. Within the pages of the next chapter, Nick loses his security team and as soon as he is alone, he is kidnapped. In the final chapter, Nick is accused of staging his own kidnapping as a ruse to gain pity on the tobacco industry. Also, smoking as it turns out saves his life. A big plot twist finishes off the book. Thank You For Smoking uses several elements of satire and irony, as well as a plot twist at the end, to draw the reader in; it uses these techniques impeccably.
Characters
The first character I will talk about is Bobby Jay Bliss; he is a member the MOD Squad, a group of friends with whom Nick eats dinner. Bobby works for SAFETY (the Society for the Advancement of Firearms and Effective Training of Youth). This is an organization promoting the right to bear arms. “Bobby Jay is a soft-speaking, curly-headed 220-pounder from Loober, Mississippi, population 235, where his father had been sheriff, mayor, and the principal collector of tax revenue by virtue of arresting every third driver who went through Loober, regardless of how fast he was going”. This quote on page 18 reveals everything about Bobby Jay, and a little bit about his neurotic father. After the Kent State shootings, Bobby Jay signed up for the National Guard, hoping to shoot college students, but instead having to settle for Vietnamese targets. He liked it, but the Vietnamese also shot back and that wasn’t so appealing. The writer says it this way on page 19, “So Bobby Jay ended up shooting at Vietnamese, which was almost as good as college students except they shot back.” The book also notes that he got his current job when the head of Safety heard his story upon him arriving home. His two tours ended in Southeast Asia when a rotor blade cut off part of his left arm up to his elbow. The book notes that Bobby Jay is a natural spokesperson for the cause of gun ownership in America, with his colorful Southerner’s way. In conclusion, Bobby Jay is a natural spokesperson born and raised in a small town, and he also has his colorful past full of arms and Vietnamese.
The next character I will talk about is Polly Bailey, who is the Chief spokesperson for the “Moderation Council”. Polly has a sexy raspy voice acquired from years of smoking; the book also notes that she wears her hair down to show youthfulness, rather than the dull boring manly woman executives you usually see. This quote on page 20 notes the sexiness in her voice caused by smoking, “Polly smoked – chain smoked in fact – which gave her voice a nice husky rasp, so that her flawless equivocations on the subject of blood alcohol content, phenolics, and excise taxes sounded downright sexy, as if she were sharing them with you in bed, with the sheets rumpled, jazz on the stereo, the candle flickering, smoke curling toward the ceiling.” She is also a stylish dresser, and doesn’t reflect the normal stereotype of the Wall Street woman. Polly is from southern California and she went to Georgetown. She wanted to enter the Foreign Service but flunked the exam. She worked on Capitol Hill for a while, and eventually ended up where she is now. While in her twenties she married a smart attractive young man named Hector, he seemed to be destined for presidential office, but he instead got sucked into a non-profit organization that gave free condoms to third world countries. With his obsession came one day his desire to have lots of children, and when Polly refused, he declared their relationship finished and moved to Lagos, Nigeria. In conclusion, Polly Bailey is a sexy young asset to the Moderation Council and the whole alcohol industry, and with her bouts with a hopeful turn to be hill rat looser she probably isn’t looking for a relationship anytime soon. She is one of the three friends In the MOD Squad.
My Final character is Nick. Nick is the chief spokesperson for The Academy of Tobacco studies, and he also has a son by the name Joey who goes to a school called St. Euthanasius. Nick is a very clever spokesperson, and is very good at what he does. He is also very clever and takes risks all on his own at the drop of a hat. This is best shown when on Oprah‘s show, he promised five million dollars instead of the planned five hundred thousand dollars for a campaign against teenage smoking. He often makes these decisions at others’ expense; for instance BR’s reaction to this event was “five million dollars? Where in the name of God are we supposed to get five million for anti- smoking ads?” As one can clearly see, his decision was at BR’s expense as BR was hoping he would still have his butt by the end of the day when the Captain found out. Of course his decision paid off for the better, as did all of his decisions in the book, because the Captain was so delighted in fact, he flew Nick down to see him. His delight is best shown through this quote on page 52, “Ah just wanted to personally say thank you.” Nick’s wit and cunningness is probably his most evident trait in the book.
Big Ideas
The big idea of this book is most definitely either society’s growing view of the cigarette companies or Nicks struggle with the moral aspects covered in the book. Nick’s struggle with morals is best seen when he talks to Lorne Lutch, because through this exchange he confides in Lorne that he does it only because he is good, and that he likes the challenge. This reveals that Nick isn’t particularly looking out for the future of cigarettes as much as just enjoying the challenge of saving them. Nick’s excuse is always just paying the mortgage, because it is simple and everybody can agree. Throughout the book, everybody’s excuse is always the benefit that working for the company brings them. The other big idea is the society’s growing view on cigarettes fueled by so much propaganda like the kidnapper that rises to kill spokespersons just because of their affiliation with cigarettes. When talking to senator Finnestere about his Vermont cheese and how it’s the number one killer in America (which is really cholesterol), Nick points out the unobvious which really shocks the senator; the fact is we don’t see ads on TV about going cold turkey on cheese, but yet we do see it on cigarettes - this is one of the main defenses, and also big ideas that Nick uses throughout the book to protect the cigarette companies.
Major conflict
The major conflict within the book is most definitely society’s view on what Nick is working to protect, cigarettes. Within the book there are several examples of this, the first one being on Opera’s show. On this show, Nick is directly blamed for the future death of a cancer kid patient he is sitting next to; this example enforces that point because Opera’s show is supposedly a big symbol or reflection of society’s view. Another example of the major conflict is Senator Finnestere’s viewpoint and his idea on how to combat cigarettes. Because he is an influential leader in his state and he also represents his thoughts as well as many others when he speaks, Finnestere speaks for the greater whole of his state. The final example is when Nick gets kidnapped, because this greatly shows what probably a lot of people are thinking, the kidnapper put crimes against humanity on the back of his neck, which symbolizes what a lot of people think, even though he’s a psychopath. A crime against humanity is what a lot of people are thinking, including Finnestere and the people who were there to see Nick on Opera show. This is a conflict Nick has to deal with every day of his life in the book, and is also really the point of his job.
My Image; Reese's
Reese's fits the, it will kill you, aspect of the book, because it, if eaten too much, can lead to several diseases.
The symbolism to this Reese's is much like senator Finnestere's cheese in the book, although there is no propaganda supporting it both of these substances can kill much like cigarettes. While cheese can lead to cholesterol Reese's can lead to being over weight and with weight can come both diabetes and breast cancer, Reese's is a very tasty killer that has not been spoken for much like the cheese in the book. The problem is too much of anything can kill, and that's the problem with all three substances here. Reese's, if it were in the book, would stand for another unspoken for killer that Nick could use against the media.
Five New or unusual words I found
Existing works
Thank You For Smoking is a piece of literature, and also a film, and the film has a couple of main differences and a couple of key points that remind me of the book. The First main difference I noticed is the role Nick’s son plays in the movie. In the book, Nick mentions him once or twice talking about his school and such, but in the movie Nick has long drawn out drama featuring his ex -wife and her boyfriend. In the book Joey is nearly just an object who has to do with an ironic situation, his school, because of the word euthanize within it; however in the movie, Joey is a sense of both responsibility and love for Nick as Nick tries to teach his son about life and his job. Another main difference, and the final one I found, is that in the movie BR is not the one that plans Nick’s kidnapping. Also Nick, in the movie is asked back to the company whilst in the book he isn't In the book, BR’s plan goes bad when the FBI is on his tail about to find out what he did, intentionally kidnapping Nick, which would most likely be considered conspiracy. This is one of the main differences between the book and the movie; I find it a disappointment because it would have made the book more exciting.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40465.Thank_You_for_Smoking
Quarter Two
http://quartertwopr.weebly.com